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Monday, December 12, 2011

Christmas Craftastic!

Well HEY! Hope you had a great weekend! I determined I was totally joking about being done with the Christmas decorating. :) I put up another tree and have at least one more spot I want to deck out.

I think this is the latest I’ve been working on decor in a long time, but I’m having fun with it so I’m not worrying about it. I’ve used VERY little of what I’ve used in the past. It’s been fun to change things up a bit!

Today I worked on a couple crafts I’ve been itchin’ to do for a while now. Kate’s Holiday Home craft party is the perfect reason to get them DONE!

OK, the first craft I was alllllll excited about – I was able to visit a spectacular Anthropology store over Thanksgiving (I still plan to tell you about that trip. It just may be Easter by the time I get to it.) and my girlfriend and I saw these and fell in love with them:

Their prices on the other hand, were INSANE. I think the big ones were $25 or maybe $30-something?

So of course, I think, OH, I could SO do those myself! The day after we got home, I went out and got the supplies to make them.

And the next day I started seeing them pop up ALL. OVER. blogland. They are that easy. And cute. :)

I wanted to do them anyway, and I changed them up just a tad, so bear with me if you’ve seen this eleventy billion times.

I started with cheapy little trees from Michael’s:

You get a package of various sizes for $1.99. They were already “snow” covered, but I wanted them to glisten with CHRISTMAS.

I used my Aleene’s clear glue and just brushed it on the sides:

Excuse the leftover pirate party plates. ;)

I used three different types of glitter to pretty them up – a silver, white, and one that is teeny tiny little glittery balls. It is beautiful!

I just dipped each tree with glue into the good stuff:

And let them dry. That’s it!

I have bajillions of Ball jars but ZERO lids for said jars. I was going to rig up something so they could sit upside down like the Anthro version, but then thought – WHY? – and just filled each jar with my faux snow and then the little trees.

I got some little pinecones and jingle bells from Hob Lob for half off and dropped a few in each jar as well:

The end result isn’t the exact Anthro version, but just as cute. (I think.):

I mean…really? I already had everything but the trees and the little fillers, so each jar was about a buck for me. But even if you started from scratch, you’d be able to do each one for less than $5.

Really Anthro? Reheheheally?

The pics don’t show how much the little trees glitter, but they are so pretty!:

If you want the fine snow look like they have, just use Epsom Salts. I have some but it was up in the bathroom and this was SO EASY, I was that lazy and didn’t want to go get it. :)

I found a little sled at a barn sale years ago, and I just laid it on the living room coffee table and placed all these goodies on it:

The trees are a little bluish green for my taste – I would rather have a true green. But when I got them in place, I realized they work perfectly with the blues in the living room:

So pretty and so easy! And CHEAP! Ohhhhh so cheap.

The next crafty project is one I had going in my noggin for months – and I couldn’t believe how easily it all came together. I started with the glass pieces I had on the dining room centerpiece till just recently:

I got most of mine from Goodwill, but you can find them for cheap at Hobby Lobby as well.

A few weeks ago Michael’s had all their Martha Stewarts paper punch thingies on sale, so I picked up a couple for this project. The first was one that punches out a line of the design out of the paper:

I found this paper at Hobby Lobby – it’s in their “special” paper area – the $1.99 a sheet stuff. (I got it half off.) This one is a grey linen-like paper that looks JUST like fabric. It’s kind of shimmery and so pretty!:

I just used spray adhesive on the back, then wrapped it around the glass candleholder.

For my next version, I used the big snowflake cut out on my sparkly white paper (also half off):

I used a strip of the paper and then the punches on some other glass pieces:

Again, I just sprayed the back of the paper with spray adhesive. If I want it to stay on there it will, but if I want to reuse these I can just take it off and wash off the adhesive.

For the final version, I used this beautiful scrapbook paper I found in the fancy papers as well:

Again, half off. :) I got each sheet for a buck and only used two sheets. For this one I just simply wrapped a few candleholders with the paper. It’s SO pretty on it’s own!

At first I was going to line them up along the stairs:

But then I realized how beautiful they’d look all together! So they ended up on the foyer table:

I added a couple mercury votive holders I had from Pottery Barn (I think they were $3 each?) and finished off the little candlescape.

Of course, it looks ahhhhmazing all lit up:

Isn’t that beautiful?

One of them is a real candle I wrapped, but for the others I’ll use my little LED candles.

I can’t get over how pretty they are – and it’s just PAPER!!

The entry table is very low key – just some greenery from the back yard in an urn, some decorative trees and now the candles:

And I figure all of them can stay out through the winter months.

LOVE them!!

This project cost me about $6 in paper and I think the paper punches were about $15 total on sale. Considering I’ll easily be able to use most of these throughout the year (not the snowflakes of course), I’m thinking that’s money well spent!

Check out Goodwill for these glass pieces – I found most of mine for a dollar or two a couple years ago!

I’m thinking about adding some of the faux snow to the top of the buffet for some fun, but I’m afraid “fun” will become “MESS” real quick. ;) I may try it out to see what happens.

So there. you. go. – my latest Christmas crafty goodness! I tell you what…when it goes well, crafting is so cathartic and relaxing. I enjoyed it so much, I have a few more projects I’m hoping to get to before the end of the season!

I can’t wait to check out what you’ve all got up your sleeves at the party! And don’t forget our Holiday Home link ups will finish up this Wednesday with my annual Christmas Tree Party!:

I can’t wait to see your gorgeous trees!

Have you been getting crafty lately? Were they successes or fails? I never know till I start if it's going to work or not!

I am sooo in love with the glass jars wrapped in PAPER!! I duplicated the jars wrapped with fabric and was planning on making a whole family of them to put on top of my entertainment center for the winter months but I LOOVVEE the look of them wrapped in paper. Thank you for another genius idea!!

the paper covered candles are my favorites! anything done in paper speaks to me. I love them because they are clean, shiny, non-kitchsy, and classy. ... they totally wouldn't fit in my house :-) Just kidding, they would but the paper would have to be turquoise-y. ooohhh. now my wheels are spinning!

just in case we don't get together for lunch this week, i'll wish you a merry christmas now! MERRY CHRISTMAS, SARAH!

What a great idea that turned out terrific! I'm going to be hitting the Goodwill to find some candleholders to make over, too. Love that they can be used through the winter, too!I've actually made more things this year than I have in a while, and it was fun and I love them. So nice when that happens. :)I get such great ideas here-thanks!

Both of those are totally adorable! I did the snowflake paper punch thing last year on candles, but the group of yours looks so pretty! What is the white stuff around the bottoms of the mason jars looks like pom pom garland, love it!

Yea! Thanks for all the ideas. . .I will *definitely* be making the candles. . .I didn't realize HL had "specialty" paper like that. . .will keep a look-out. I'm thinking the Dollar Tree has candle holders like that too? I really need a candle display like yours on my entry buffet. . .may even send you a pic if I get it done :) For now will pin your inspiration to my boards -- ha! Quick question: where do you get your LED lights? I know you mention them a lot and love them. . .I just don't know what kind to invest in that will last and/or look close enough to the "real" thing that I will be happy. What should I expect to pay for them? Thanks for all your crafty goodness!!

OMGosh...these are beautiful. I've seen the decorative hole punchers but could never figure out what to do with them. I might have to steal this idea for next year! Thanks so much. Wanna come decorate my house next year?

I especially love the glass containers. If you're looking for a little snowy look on your buffet, you might consider that white "batting" sort of stuff they sell at Xmas all over, and just arrange it around/under your glass cylinders. I found some of that in a tree skirt & it had glitter on it. It looked really pretty with white mini-lights placed under it.